Trystan Casey
Electric Counterpoint is a minimalist composition by American composer Steve Reich. It was first recorded in 1987 by guitarist Pat Metheny, who made extensive use of overdubbing. The piece consists of three movements: Fast, Slow, and Fast. It is scored for electric guitar or amplified acoustic guitar and tape, with the tape part featuring two electric bass guitars and up to ten electric guitars. Alternatively, it may be performed by a live ensemble of guitars. Electric Counterpoint has influenced many modern artists, such as The Orb, RJD2, and Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, who has performed the piece at several festivals and concerts.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Composer | Steve Reich |
| Year | 1987 |
| Genre | Minimalist |
| Duration | 15 minutes |
| Movements | Three ("Fast", "Slow", "Fast") |
| Performance | One live guitar and tape, or an ensemble of guitars |
| Tape composition | Seven to ten electric guitars and two electric bass guitars |
| Texture | Contrapuntal |
| Form | Binary (AB) with four sections within the A and B sections |
| Tonality | Modal |
| Chord progressions | C Bm E5, C D Em, and C D Bm |
| Rhythm | Steady pulse |
| Notable recordings | Pat Metheny (1987, 1989), Forestare (2007), David Tanenbaum (1994), Röyksopp (2010), Jonny Greenwood (2012, 2014), Yaron Deutsch (2020), Pierre Bibault (2021), Santiago Quintáns, Marco Maiole (2023) |
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What You'll Learn
Electric Counterpoint's minimalist composition
Electric Counterpoint is a minimalist composition by American composer Steve Reich. It was first recorded in 1987 by guitarist Pat Metheny, who made extensive use of overdubbing. The piece is scored for "electric guitar or amplified acoustic guitar and tape". Alternatively, it may be performed by a live ensemble.
The work consists of three movements: "Fast", "Slow", and "Fast", played one after the other without pause. The first movement, after an introductory pulsing section, uses a theme derived from Central African horn music. The soloist plays melodic patterns that result from the contrapuntal interlocking of eight pre-recorded guitars. The second movement cuts the tempo in half, changes key, and introduces a new theme, which is then slowly built up in nine guitars in canon. The third movement returns to the original tempo and key and introduces a new pattern in triple meter.
The composition is available in two different arrangements. The first arrangement is for electric guitar and tape, which includes up to 10 electric guitars and two electric bass guitars. The second arrangement is for a group of guitars. When performed with the first arrangement, the live guitar is accompanied by seven guitars and two bass guitars that have been pre-recorded. The live guitar is amplified to blend in with the backing tape.
Electric Counterpoint has influenced many modern artists, including Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, who has performed the piece at several festivals and concerts featuring the London Contemporary Orchestra.
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Versions and instrumentation
Electric Counterpoint, a minimalist composition by American composer Steve Reich, is scored for "electric guitar or amplified acoustic guitar and tape". It can also be performed by a live ensemble of guitars. The piece, consisting of three movements ("Fast", "Slow", and "Fast"), is about 15 minutes long.
The composition has two versions. The first version involves a soloist pre-recording up to 10 guitars and 2 electric bass parts, and then playing the final 11th guitar part live against the tape. The second, lesser-known version is for an ensemble of guitars. Guitarists wishing to perform the piece may use Pat Metheny's pre-recorded ensemble part or opt to record their own, adding the 13th guitar part in live performance.
The first movement, after an introductory pulsing section, uses a theme derived from Central African horn music. This theme is built up in an eight-voice canon, while the remaining two guitars and bass play pulsing harmonies. The soloist plays melodic patterns that result from the contrapuntal interlocking of the eight pre-recorded guitars. The second movement cuts the tempo by half, changes the key, and introduces a new theme, which is then slowly built up in nine guitars in canon. Once again, two other guitars and bass supply harmony while the soloist brings out melodic patterns that result from the overall contrapuntal web. The third movement returns to the original tempo and key and introduces a new pattern in triple meter.
Electric Counterpoint has been performed and recorded by several artists, including Pat Metheny (1987, 1989), David Tanenbaum (1994), Röyksopp (2010), Jonny Greenwood (2012, 2014), Yaron Deutsch (2020), Pierre Bibault (2021), Santiago Quintáns (2021), Giacomo Baldelli (2022), and Marco Maiole (2023).
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Influence on modern artists
Electric Counterpoint is a minimalist composition by American composer Steve Reich. It was first recorded in 1987 by guitarist Pat Metheny, who made extensive use of overdubbing. The piece consists of three movements: "Fast," "Slow," and "Fast," played one after the other without pause.
Electric Counterpoint, like other pieces by Reich, has influenced many modern artists. The Orb, for example, sampled the third movement of the Pat Metheny recording as one of the hooks of "Little Fluffy Clouds". RJD2 sampled the piece's opening for "The Proxy" from his first release, Deadringer. In 2008, Joby Burgess' Powerplant arranged the work for Xylosynth, taking influence from Metheny and the Orb. Röyksopp released two remixes of the third movement in 2010, one of which is a reinterpretation titled "Milde Salve". Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood has performed the piece at several festivals and concerts featuring the London Contemporary Orchestra, and he recorded it for a Nonesuch album of Reich works titled Radio Rewrite.
The piece was included in the video game Civilization V as one of the "great works of music" and was performed during the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps 2015 production "Kinetic Noise".
Electric Counterpoint has also influenced modern counterpoint more broadly. While counterpoint is often associated with classical music, it has been used by musicians across all genres, from jazz masters to contemporary pop artists. Progressive rock bands like Yes and King Crimson have utilized counterpoint, bringing it to the forefront of the genre. Pop artists such as The Beatles and Madonna have incorporated elements of counterpoint to craft a more nuanced and layered song structure. Musicians push boundaries by blending traditional counterpoint with contemporary elements, reimagining counterpoint and its possibilities.
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The three movements
Electric Counterpoint is a minimalist composition by American composer Steve Reich. The piece is written for live guitar, with the live guitar accompanied by seven guitars and two bass guitars that are pre-recorded. The live guitar is amplified to blend in with the backing tape. The composition is available in two different arrangements: one for electric guitar and tape, and the other for an ensemble of guitars.
Electric Counterpoint consists of three movements: "Fast," "Slow," and "Fast," played one after the other without pause. The first movement, after an introductory pulsing section, uses a theme derived from Central African horn music. The theme is built up in an eight-voice canon, while the remaining two guitars and bass play pulsing harmonies. The soloist plays melodic patterns that result from the contrapuntal interlocking of the eight pre-recorded guitars.
The second movement cuts the tempo in half, changes key, and introduces a new theme, which is then slowly built up in nine guitars in canon. Once again, two other guitars and bass supply harmony while the soloist brings out melodic patterns that result from the overall contrapuntal web.
The third movement returns to the original tempo and key and introduces a new pattern in triple meter. After building up a four-guitar canon, two bass guitars enter suddenly to further stress the triple meter. The soloist then introduces a new series of strummed chords that are then built up in a three-guitar canon. The movement ends with the basses slowly fading out and the ambiguities finally resolved in 12/8 and E minor.
The third movement is particularly well-known and has been included in the Edexcel GCSE Anthology of Music and in the video game Civilization V as one of the "great works of music." It has also been sampled by various modern artists, such as the Orb and RJD2.
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Electric Counterpoint's place in Steve Reich's body of work
Electric Counterpoint is a minimalist composition by American composer Steve Reich. It is a piece for electric guitar and tape, with the tape featuring up to 10 electric guitars and two electric bass guitars, or for an ensemble of guitars. The piece is in three movements: "Fast", "Slow", and "Fast", played one after the other without pause. Electric Counterpoint was composed in 1987 and was commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival for guitarist Pat Metheny, who performed the world premiere in 1987 and made the first recording of the piece in the same year, making extensive use of overdubbing. It was released on Nonesuch Records alongside Reich's Different Trains, performed by the Kronos Quartet.
Electric Counterpoint is the third in a series of pieces by Reich, following Vermont Counterpoint (1982) for flutist Ransom Wilson and New York Counterpoint (1985) for clarinettist Richard Stolzman. All three pieces deal with a soloist playing against a pre-recorded tape of themselves. In Electric Counterpoint, the soloist pre-records up to 10 guitars and 2 electric bass parts and then plays the final 11th guitar part live. The piece has a duration of approximately 15 minutes.
The first movement of Electric Counterpoint uses a theme derived from Central African horn music, which is built up in an eight-voice canon. The remaining two guitars and bass play pulsing harmonies while the soloist plays melodic patterns that result from the contrapuntal interlocking of the pre-recorded guitars. The second movement cuts the tempo in half, changes key, and introduces a new theme, which is then slowly built up in nine guitars in canon. Again, two other guitars and bass supply harmony while the soloist brings out melodic patterns that result from the overall contrapuntal web. The third movement returns to the original tempo and key and introduces a new pattern in triple meter. A four-guitar canon is built up, after which two bass guitars enter suddenly to further stress the triple meter. The soloist then introduces a new series of strummed chords that are built up in a three-guitar canon. The basses then begin to change both key and meter back and forth between E minor and C minor and between 3/2 and 12/8, with the rhythmic and tonal changes speeding up more and more rapidly until the end of the piece, when the ambiguities are finally resolved in 12/8 and E minor.
Electric Counterpoint has influenced many modern artists, including the Orb, who sampled the third movement of the Pat Metheny recording for their song "Little Fluffy Clouds", and RJD2, who sampled the piece's opening for his song "The Proxy" from his first release, Deadringer. In 2008, Joby Burgess' Powerplant arranged the work for Xylosynth, taking influence from Metheny and the Orb. Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood has also performed the piece at several festivals and concerts featuring the London Contemporary Orchestra, and he recorded the piece for a Nonesuch album of Reich works titled Radio Rewrite, released in 2012.
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Frequently asked questions
Electric Counterpoint is a minimalist composition by the American composer Steve Reich. The piece consists of three movements: "Fast", "Slow", and "Fast".
Electric Counterpoint can be performed in two different ways. One version is for electric guitar and tape, with the tape featuring two electric bass guitars and up to ten electric guitars. The other version is for an ensemble of guitars.
Electric Counterpoint is characterized by the use of layered guitar parts and a steady pulse. It also features repetition of brief melodic ideas, a static harmony, and consistent rhythms with a variety of patterns and accents.
